After five years and following the completion of the largest capital campaign in the organization’s history, CEO Terry Pottmeyer is stepping down from Friends of Youth (FOY).
Only two months ago, FOY celebrated the opening of its Kirkland Youth Center as part of the “Housing Our Future” capital campaign. Started in 2012, the campaign raised $6.7 million to pay for the construction of six new buildings in response to rapidly growing demand for more housing.
For Pottmeyer, now that the campaign is finished, the time just seemed right.
“I feel the work I had been called to do has been done,” she said. “Friends of Youth is in great shape and in great hands. I think if you’re going to transition from leadership, you do it when the organization is strong. It’s never been in a stronger position financially. It’s got some incredible staff. It’s time to pass it to the next person when things are going well.”
Although Pottmeyer said she is not leaving for another job specifically, she wanted to ensure the transition at FOY goes well.
“When you transition it takes time,” she said. “If I were to go to another position I wouldn’t be able to give the support of the transition.” Naturally, one of the highlights of her tenure at FOY was the “Housing Our Future” capital campaign, the largest ever in the organization’s 63-year history.
“Unfortunately the need of the children in our community increased, because of the economic downturn and the impact it had on families,” she said. “It was a sadness, but Friends of Youth made a commitment and had the ability to respond.”
While the campaign was a success, there were also challenges with cutbacks in state funding in the child welfare system, which FOY has been involved in since its inception.
“The cutbacks in state budget in child welfare really did have an impact for our work and the work of our region across the state,” she said. “During that time we saw a lot of our partners unable to continue their work in child welfare, organizations that had to close their doors.”
FOY has also increased its involvement in child foster care, opening its own program three years ago, according to Pottmeyer, after the legislature passed a law extending foster care benefits to 19-21 year olds.
“That, I think, was an important victory for our state and the children we serve,” she said. “Friends of Youth has extensive foster care. I think it’s a recognition in our community that kids at 18 aren’t capable of being independent and on their own and they need a family and a support system. I think it’s going to have a really positive impact on foster kids. I think that was a really important thing to happen.”
Another accomplishment Pottmeyer felt FOY achieved during the past five years was renewed enthusiasm among their various partnerships in the area with youth services at both King County and Snohomish County, as well as Auburn.
“I think their attention has deepened and increased and we were certainly a part of that,” she said. “I can say that without exception everybody who was involved in the issue has really stepped up in the last five years.”
The interim CEO will be Nancy Osborn Nicholas, a Renton native with 30 years of experience in nonprofit executive leadership, including 19 years as executive director of a homeless services organization.
She said she plans to help FOY for the next several months as they look for a new executive director and examine their next step beyond the capital campaign.
“With any accomplishment of that size, after you have accomplished something like this, there is a period of assessing the impact and looking to the future,” she said. “I will be working with the board of directors as we build our new five year strategic plan. There will be a lot of focusing inward and… we will continue to focus building those community partnerships and working with community partners to end homelessness, particularly youth.”
